This invention relates to a device designed to retain a pair of socks or other paired items of clothing together during the washing and drying thereof. The device is also adapted to be used to display a pair of socks or other paired items of clothing on display racks in stores selling such items of clothing.
Anyone that has laundered clothing has experienced the frustration of finding one or more socks or other clothing items used and laundered in pairs, missing after the washing or drying cycles. In many cases the missing sock is adhering to a hidden surface of the rotating drum of the washing machine or the dryer and turns up in a subsequent washing and drying cycle. However, in many cases it is never found. This problem is especially acute where one does the laundry at a public laundromat and discovers the missing sock or other item of clothing only after returning home from the laundromat.
Equally frustating is having to match up pairs of socks or other clothing items of smilar shape and color that all have been included in a single load of laundry.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,651 issued in 1971 to Robert H. Goodman discloses a hoop-like plastic or metal ring having prongs or other projections to surround a pair of socks or other items of clothing during washing and drying thereof. The device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,651, is relatively small and easily dislodged from the clothing during the vigorous agitation during the washing cycle and could easily enter and damage the washing machine or dryer mechanism. In addition, the device disclosed in the patent to Goodman can not be used with clothing items of different thicknesses, since the ring is of a fixed, predetermined diameter.